Brandy for the People

There are many things Jack Parow is known for – cutting lyrics, catchy tunes, and oversized flat caps to name just a few – but his newest release might not be what you expect. Last year, the South African wordsmith expanded his empire with the release of Parow Brandy – a brandy creation that’s as controversially fantastic as his songs have become known to be.

While whiskey, gin, and recently rum have been growing in leaps and bounds in the increasingly sugar-conscious South African booze market, brandy’s local image is one that seems unavoidably tied up in a “brandy and coke”. Knowing this, or perhaps with it specifically in mind, Jack Parow’s own “Karate Water” has been produced to fill the gap in the local market for a premium, locally-produced brandy “met skop and lots of flavour”, which makes it not just great when mixed with Coca-Cola, but perhaps best enjoyed that way.

A three-year, hand-crafted brandy, Parow Brandy is positioned as “a real brandy for real people”. Originally only available at certain stops, the smiling, sunglasses-and-cap clad skull Parow Brandy bottle can now also be found at Beerhouse Fourways – the perfect expansion of its craft beer revolution into the craft brandy scene. As the co-owner of Beerhouse, Randolf Jorberg feels Parow Brandy is the perfect brand to help keep them moving forward. “Apart from beer, the Beerhouse team is completely aware of South Africans’ love of ‘klippies and coke’, or ‘karatewater’ as it is colloquially known. With our fingers on the pulse at all times, we absolutely love to surprise Beerhouse fans with something new and fresh. So a natural progression for us was to introduce craft brandy to our craft beer collection, and who better than the man himself, Jack Parow, to be part of this adventure with his Parow Brandy.”

Where do you live? What is it about your locality that makes you call it “home”? This is exactly what Neighbourhood is about – the people and places that make your everyday… extraordinary. It begins with celebrating the places we live in and the loyalty we have with our suburbs.
Imagine a map of the road you stay in, then zoom out to see the greater area around it. YourNeighbourhood is about knowing those spaces and then connecting each hood to the next. By telling the many stories of what makes a place special, we also highlight the greater cities of our country – Cape Town, Joburg, Pretoria, Durban and Port Elizabeth – and all there is to experience. Zoom out even more… and in the bigger picture South Africa is in turn one large neighbourhood to the rest of the world.